SINGAPORE – More parents of students in national schools can now apply for Giro online for payment of school expenses instead of having to fill out paper forms, as the eGiro service provided by the Ministry of Education (MOE) has been expanded from two participating banks to eight.

DBS partnered with MOE to develop an online service for the ministry to accept Giro applications from parents using bank accounts with the eight banks.

Giro is an electronic direct debit system for recurring bill payments from bank accounts. eGiro, a fully digital service launched by the Association of Banks in Singapore in 2021, allows users to set up their automatic monthly payment instructions online, instead of having to submit paper application forms.

This cuts the time taken to process Giro applications from weeks to minutes.

The eight participating banks are DBS/POSB, OCBC, UOB, Bank of China, HSBC, Maybank, Standard Chartered and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

Previously, parents of students enrolled in MOE schools could apply for Giro through Internet banking or the online application form only if they were DBS/POSB or OCBC account holders. Account holders of other banks had to submit paper forms, which takes about two to four weeks to process.

Mr Clarence Tang, divisional director of finance and procurement at MOE, said the arrangement will make it more convenient for parents to set up Giro for payment of school expenses.

“This is part of MOE’s overall effort to improve our services through digitalisation,” he added.